Salton Sea: California's Accidental Lake and Its Fading Resorts

The lowest part of California's southeastern desert is a basin called the Salton Sink, and it has held lakes before. Over thousands of years, the Colorado River shifted course back and forth, sometimes flowing to the Gulf of California and sometimes pouring into the basin. The last of these natural lakes, Lake Cahuilla, was far larger than today's sea. The Cahuilla people have an oral memory of it, and it dried up soon after 1700. By 1900, the sink was dry, and the California Development Company was digging canals to bring Colorado River water to farms in the Imperial Valley. The canals kept clogging with silt, so the company cut a new intake on the river, without headgates. In 1905, heavy spring floods on the Colorado broke through, and much of the river poured through the canal into the Salton Sink. It ran for roughly two years. The Southern Pacific Railroad, whose tracks were going under, spent about $3 million fighting the breach, which was finally sealed in early 1907. By then, a lake covering about 316,000 acres had formed, about 197 feet below sea level. It was named the Salton Sea. The lake had no outlet. Its only water came from farm runoff and rivers, and the only way out was evaporation, so it grew steadily saltier. Even so, by the 1950s, saltwater fish introduced into the sea were thriving, and the Salton Sea became a fishing and vacation destination. Resort towns like Bombay Beach, North Shore and Salton City sprang up with marinas, yacht clubs and vacation homes. In the 1950s, Bombay Beach drew celebrities including Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. It didn't last. As salinity rose, massive fish die-offs piled carcasses on the beaches. Flooding damaged shoreline towns, and from the late 1970s on, visitors stayed away. Starting in the 1980s, water conservation reduced runoff into the sea. Then, under a 2003 agreement, more water was sent to coastal cities. With less water coming in, the sea began to shrink. That created a new problem. As the shoreline pulls back, it exposes dry lakebed. The soils are highly saline and may contain toxic constituents, and the wind blows dust from the exposed lakebed into nearby communities. The state launched the Salton Sea Management Program in 2017 to build habitat and control dust. The resort era is long gone, but the towns aren't. Bombay Beach, down to 231 people, has become an art destination. North Shore's old yacht club has been restored as a community center. Salton City has grown to more than 5,000 residents. And the sea itself, still one of California's largest lakes, keeps shrinking.